Incubators provide neonatal care for newborns and especially for prematures. An important task of the incubator is to supply fresh air to the infant and to maintain the temperature of the infant. For this purpose, air circulating systems are generally provided wherein the air is circulated by at least one blower. In addition, an air preparation unit is provided for maintaining the temperature of the air and adding moisture thereto and enriching the circulated air with oxygen as required.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,362 describes an incubator wherein the temperature-regulated air is blown up on three sides of the member defining the supporting surface for the infant and is conducted downwardly below this member at a fourth side thereof. It is a disadvantage of this arrangement that one end of the supporting surface for the infant is not warmed and this perforce leads to large temperature differences as a consequence of air layers having respectively different degrees of warmth and as a consequence of side walls having different degrees of heat.
In a special embodiment of this known incubator, the air is received by an air return channel directly below the top wall of the incubator and is conducted downwardly. This air return channel is disposed outside of the incubator interior thereby causing condensate to form at lower ambient temperatures and this, in turn, is associated with hygienic problems.